Dover vandals to graduate, face community service

By agreeing to perform community service work for the Dover City Schools District, Dover High seniors involved in vandalism at rival New Philadelphia High will be allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies tonight.

By agreeing to perform community service work for the Dover City Schools District, Dover High seniors involved in vandalism at rival New Philadelphia High will be allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies tonight.

New Philadelphia Police Detective Capt. Shawn Nelson said he’s talked to 13 students, and will talk with up to four more regarding the incident early last Friday.

A total of $10,293 in damage occurred when the students used art supplies to draw and write on a special, tinted window film installed this month to increase safety in the high school and middle school. People inside can see out, but people can’t see into the classroom from outside.

“Everyone seems be cooperating for the most part,” Nelson said Thursday. “I just want to get to the bottom of who did what and move forward. I hope that everyone understands that these are good kids. It’s an unfortunate situation.”

Nelson said it will be up to prosecutors to determine what charges may be filed.

Dover Superintendent Bob Hamm said Thursday that Dover High Principal Karie McCrate and Assistant Principal Jack Edwards met with each student and their parents this week and talked about what happened.

“The students involved in the incident will have the option to participate in commencement,” Hamm said of graduation ceremonies. “If they choose to participate, there’s an expectation that they will be involved in community service time for the Dover schools district. It will be work within the district at the beginning of summer break after the students and faculty members have gone.”

“Making mistakes is a part of growing up,” Hamm said. “These are good kids, who made a poor decision. Surely, we don’t condone the activity. We’re disappointed and wish it hadn’t happened.”

New Philadelphia Superintendent Bob Alsept said Hamm called him.

“I appreciate Bob’s call,” Alsept said. “We’ve got a great relationship with Bob and Dover schools. No doubt this will be taken care of. I know they’re working diligently, and the police are working hard.”

“I know the folks at Dover feel bad, and that those involved feel bad,” Alsept said. “Unfortunately, sometimes young people make bad decisions. I’m sure this has turned out worse than anything they had anticipated.”

New Philadelphia police responded to a call at 2:07 a.m. May 17 about youths throwing toilet paper around the high school. Police were unable to locate them, but later determined they were Dover seniors.

Kelly Ricklic, district building and grounds supervisor, said they used art supplies on about 28 individual doors and dozens of windows, all on the ground level of the high school or middle school.

“They seemed to target the windows that had the Quaker image, the New Philadelphia logo or the district’s core values printed on them,” Alsept said.

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The students used what has been determined to be glass chalk, instead of poster paint as school officials had said. Some area residents question why janitors couldn’t just wash off the chalk.

“It’s not just a matter of using a power washer,” Alsept said. “The installer told us we’ve done what we could, but there are ones that must be replaced.”

Some faint images, or scratches, remain that show the Dover High School script D or other graffiti.

“It looks like the (chalk) soaked into the material,” Alsept said. “They’ve been scrubbed, but from inside you can still see the remnants. We want to take care of that now because you don’t know if those will become more visible over time.”

Alsept responded to people who blame damage on how janitors tried to remove the chalk. He pointed out that it included profane words and drawings, and employees worked from 2:30 to 6:30 a.m. to clean before students arrived. He said it didn’t disrupt classes.

Vandals put what appeared to be petroleum jelly on entrance scanners — apparently thinking they were covering surveillance cameras.

“There’s an outside box containing a camera and an intercom with speakers at each entrance,” Alsept explained. “The Vaseline was cleaned off the door handles, but it liquefied and damaged the other equipment.”

Alsept said Thursday that the total bill for damages is $10,293. Initial estimates were at least $18,000, based on the about $16,000 cost of installing the tinted windows. A representative of that company helped conduct a thorough inspection Monday.

The total includes four employees called out for cleanup, with a combined total of about 20 hours at their respective overtime rates.

“We’re seeking restitution – we don’t want to submit an insurance claim or spend any district funds,” Alsept said. “We’re not looking to charge one dollar more than what than what it will take to get back to the conditions as they were that Thursday afternoon — but not one dollar less.